ACES ON BRIDGE

“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who only dream by night.”

— Edgar Allan Poe

In today’s deal, declarer must be careful after driving to game opposite his partner’s single raise. After the lead of the club queen, South sees that he might conceivably lose three spades, a diamond and a club. Chances are strong that West has the spade ace for his double, but he could also have the diamond king. A successful diamond finesse, if repeated, would be enough to see declarer home.

Declarer wins the club ace and takes the trump ace and king, but he must not draw a third trump now, even though he knows that East still has the heart jack.

The reason for abandoning the trump suit is that South plans to take the diamond finesse. If it succeeds, this will leave him in dummy, and he must get back to his own hand in order to repeat the finesse. The only convenient way is with a trump.

At trick four, South takes a diamond finesse, then comes to his hand as planned with a trump to repeat the maneuver. If East were to win the diamond king, the contract would go down anyway; it would simply be a question of extra undertricks.

When the second diamond finesse succeeds, declarer throws his club on the diamond ace and tries a spade to the king for an overtrick.

If declarer had drawn the last trump before playing on diamonds, he would have had to exit with a club from the dummy. However, East could win that and shift to the spade 10, scoring three spade tricks for his side whether declarer covered or not.

ANSWER: Jumping to three spades seems sensible enough here, albeit a slight overbid — you may be able to justify your action with your intermediates. With good support, working minor honors and a singleton on the side, two spades would be a slight underbid. After all, you could make game opposite a fitting seven-count.